Get Over Him
by Noelle D. Gray
Summary: What happens when a young woman falls in love with an A.I. but the rest of her life disagrees with her feelings?
1. Chapter 1: Nigel

Liv came to work at the movie theatre. She clocked on and set up the box office. Fixing the stanchions, counting the till, grabbing a walkie, finishing with switching on of the showtimes screen that hovered against the glass of her window. She sighed and forced a smile as the first customer came in but her eyes drifted to the sign that said "no discount day".

The day was like every other. Angry customers. Name calling. Long periods of time with in isolation. All while she could hear her co-worker's voices just outside talking and laughing. A wall between them. None of her young fellow employees came to speak to her. And if they needed to come to the box they left in a hurry to go back to their friends. She looked at the clock and huffed softly in discontent. Looking back a moment later to see it change one minute. The faintest of smiles touched her lips.

Going to the store she grabbed enough for one. The smallest milk, the single serving food, and the large tub of ice cream. She debated in her head the pros and cons of rocky road or cookie dough. A ways down from her was a woman with a cart. A man came around the corner and kissed the woman on the cheek before kissing her lips. The woman giggled and kissed him again then again. Liv looked away and left the aisle.

Coming home she grabbed the bags and made her way to the door. A small package was on the porch for her. Using her foot to push open the door she placed her groceries on the table and went back for the box that was scarcely the size of a baseball. It said it was from her mother. The box was clearly from Mottz Bottz which it's sleek white box and fancy font and she wanted nothing to do with it. Tossing it aside she put away her groceries and made a small dinner. Eating it and watching tv. Putting her dishes in the sink she unwrapped a box with a single cupcake. Poking a candle into it she sighed. Looking at a picture on the fridge, Liv was in the picture smiling with a man kissing her cheek. She looked back and blew out the candle.

Laying in bed the room was a dark void surrounding the glow of her phone. Liv was looking at it thumb scrolling through social media, looking at the people she graduated with. Happy, beautiful people with husbands or wives and kids on the way or already there. Her heart hurt and tugged, a tear forming in her eye. She typed in her ex's name and hesitated on the button. There he was...happy with his ex wife... Putting her phone down the blue light dims then vanishes. The tears falling in the dark and quiet shuddering sobs filling the silence void.

The next morning as Liv was watching tv in her pajamas when there was a knock at her door. Scrunching her brow she got up and answered. A bubbly looking blonde girl smiled. "Hey Livie!"

"Hey?" she asked not in the way that she didn't know the girl but more she didn't remember inviting her over.

"Oh my god! Why aren't you dressed?" The woman asked pushing into the house without invitation. Liv took a step back, letting her, despite the fact she didn't want to leave the house.

"Dressed for what?" Liv asked.

"We're hitting the club for your birthday!"

"Lana...that was yesterday." Liv corrected.

"Oh but I worked yesterday so let's get dressed and get our drink on! Besides Thursday is not a club day. So we're going tonight. Getting you birthday laid! YAY!"

"Yay…" Liv mimicked with a lack of enthusiasm.

What followed was a barrage of painful makeover pieces. Pulling and burning of Liv's short blonde hair in order to curl it, painting her face in pounds of makeup that made her feel like Nic Cage in Face/Off and a slew of tight outfits that made Liv feel worse and worse about herself. Before she could find an excuse to get out of the night she was at a club with strobing colored lights and pounding bass. Inside Lana ordered two drinks and went away but Liv leaned in and told the bartender to make her drink a virgin or coke. He nodded and she smiled softly.

Liv never understood why Lana brought her. This sweaty loud assortment of aggressively horny men and women grinding on each other in a grotesque display of bad decisions was not what she called her "scene". She didn't like to dance, she didn't care for alcohol and no men came to talk to her no matter how fake happy and ditzy she looked. However just as she considered the men a man came to her.

"Hey could I buy you a drink?" He asked slouching into the table and drawing closer than Liv would like. He was tall, with dark hair that looked like it got more love and attention than he gave his mom. The smell of his body spray greeted her nose as subtly as punch in the face with golf club.

"Um sure...I'm not drinking tonight though..." she admitted and waited for him to leave. If a girl wasn't drunk enough to forget her own name that meant some miniscule level of commitment and these frat boys wanted none of that.

"Oh DD for your friends? That's cute," he smiled and took a sip of his beer.

"Not really," she said bluntly.

"So what do you?" He asked.

"Customer service unfortunately...you?" She replied hoping that was what he was asking the music was so loud she couldn't exactly hear over this techno squealing people called music nowadays.

"Oh that sucks. I'm executive corporate analysis. Boring I know."

"Nah. You get to wear a suit though," she smiled feeling herself inwardly cringe.

"That I do. What's your name sweetheart?"

"Liv."

"Short for?"

"Olivia."

"Pretty." he smiled at her and she felt that tingle of excitement, maybe she would get birthday laid.

The guy talked for a bit longer. Covering subjects like her awful job and his hobbies. The state of music and overuse of tech. Most importantly how hard it was to get other girls away from their phones long enough to have a proper conversation. He talked about he liked a girl who had depth and brought something to the table in conversation. She began to like this guy. Nothing to call her mom about but maybe a one night stand? God how long had it been? Probably since the last time with her ex...shit he was speaking!

"So your friend...?"

"What about her?"

"Is she single?"

Liv's heart dropped and she felt the squeeze of embarrassment. Of course he wasn't after her... Not with Lana here. All of this was a lie...the last 20 minutes was stupid lie...She rolled her eyes and left the table. Grabbing her purse in the motion to leave and resisting the urge to hit him with it.

"C'mon sweetheart! Hook a brother up!" He called after her, "you're cute! You can join if you want!"

Lana was hammered when the club closed and Liv took her home. Making sure to put a bucket by her bed, a sandwich wrapped up next to the bed on the side table, along with a glass of water and aspirin. Going home she washed the makeup off and changed. Exhaling heavily at the sight of her with the remaining mascara surrounding her eyes. Grabbing a string cheese and eating it in its proper method, in one tiny strand at a time. Her eyes went from her phone and all the posts Lana had made throughout the night to the small box on the table. Her eyes lingered on it for a long moment. Reaching out she took hold of the box and opened it. Inside was a note from her mother. "Get over him already" it read. She crumpled it and tossed it aside. Turning the box over so a small velvet ring box fell on to the table a thud that seemed to echo in her small home. She opened the box to see a silver ring with a vibrant blue jewel. Above it was a pair of earbuds. Reluctantly she put the earbuds in then slid the ring on. It made a whirring noise as the ring sized to her finger and a voice popped into her head.

"Ello?" it said, male and English. Why she ever told her mother she was a sucker for an English accent she'll never know.

"H-hello..." She replied quietly.

"Who is this I have the pleasure of speaking to?"

"Olivia Holmes...I mean Liv..." she said quietly.

"Ello Liv I am...Nigel. Yeah Nigel, rather dashing name if I do say so myself." He replied.

She scoffed, "You had to think about your name?" .

"Yes you would too if you just came into existence in the last 30 seconds."

"I guess you're right. So hi Nigel...um...how is this suppose to work?" Liv asked giving a broad gesture to the room around her.

"Well I am a very basic bot. A gift for you."

"What am I supposed to do?" she asked.

"In blunt terms, I keep you company. Did something happen to you to make you form a general dislike for human company?"

Liv laughed a bit running a hand through her hair, "You could said that..."

"Well I am here to make you feel less lonely."

"You were sent to me to make sure I don't slit my fucking wrists and end it..."

"Please. No one is worth that much." He spoke softly, "Darling a fuck up is a fuck up no matter what. Your life is precious. Whatever he did to fuck up he doesn't deserve your thoughts… are you considering harming yourself?"

"Thought this what she sent you for..." she scoffed a bit going to take off the ring.

"No! Please give me a chance!" Nigel shouted.

"Why?"

"Because...I'm basic...I'm not updated I'm not fancy but I can try to make you happy again please just let me try...I know I can…"

Liv stopped and let a long sigh, "Fine...how long do I have to return you?"

"One week."


	2. Chapter Two: One Week

Chapter 2: One Week

Liv woke to the knocking at her door. Sleepily she rose to answer it. As she walked to the door a voice startled her.

"Good morning darling," Nigel said.

"Morning..." She yawned.

"Who could be here this early?" He asked.

"I have a feeling..." She grumbled getting to the door. She unlocked both locks, cracking the door letting the sunlight stream in stinging her eyes. Lana stood there in all her hungover yet still beautiful gloriousness. Sweatpants, hoodie, hair in a messy bun and minimal makeup. The sort you see girls doing on a date after sleeping over. Sneaking out of bed to do before the guy wakes up.

"You want breakfast burritos?" She asked her voice was levels below in pep than it was yesterday. In a way, she went from a Heather to a Veronica... Even her brain was ashamed of that comparison.

"Yeah. Give me sec..." Liv said.

"No need to change. You look better than I do."

"Yeah, not gonna lie. Tequila was never your color," Liv stifled a laugh.

"True..."

"But I think the world would appreciate me putting on some pants," Liv said opening the door to show Lana her pale legs.

"Fuck girl...you need a tan! If we go to the beach you'll blind people!"

"The beacons have been lit! Gondor calls for aid!" Liv laughed but was met only with a blank stare.

"What?" Lana asked.

"Nothing," she retracted fast, "come inside. I'll be right out."

Walking back to her room Nigel spoke in her ear, "I thought that was funny."

This made Liv smile, "yeah Lana isn't really a nerd..."

"Why hang out with her then?"

"Well..." Liv started going into her drawers, "she was my roommate in the air force...we got out around the same time. Turns out we lived in the same area. Except I went to Monroe and she was in Sultan. Lived close our whole lives, never met."

"Small world." Nigel said.

"Very."

The two girls got in the car and headed to the mall. Lana's music was so loud Liv couldn't hear Nigel if he even tried to speak. It was gangster rap and Liv didn't much care for it but Lana was ex security forces so she thought she was a badass. Lana also smoked in her car. Black & Mild cigars, the kind called Jazz. At first it gave Liv a headache but now after all these years she found comfort in the smell. The mall wasn't busy yet, it was 10am on a Saturday. People were sleeping in or getting ready. They wouldn't be here for an hour or so.

Getting to the booth in the food court that sold the burritos Lana liked they had to wait 10 or so minutes for them to open. The burritos were a few inches shy of being the size of a forearm and girthy as hell. Stuffed with sausage, eggs, cheese, onion, peppers, hash browns and Liv ordered hers avocado. Taking their massive burritos to a table they began their meal.

"So last night Randy was at out with Caroline," Lana said.

"Cool."

"No. Not cool. Randy was just out with me on Tuesday and that asshole thinks he can just drop me for some bitch."

"I like Caroline. I thought you said you didn't like Randy?"

"Well yeah but that doesn't mean he gets to dump me without a word then fuck every slut in town."

"Caroline isn't a slut..."

"Please have you seen her. She's fucking ratchet."

"I thought Ratchet was a 2013 thing..."

"It doesn't matter. She knows Randy is mine. Oh have you heard anything from Jeff?"

Liv looked from her food. Nigel felt the spike in her heart rate. "No...but last I heard is Melanie is pregnant."

"Yeah I saw that. Bitch thinks she's Beyonce.,

"Yeah..." Liv shrugged.

"Anyway so at work..." Lana went on talking for God knows how long. Nigel silently observed how Lana unloaded all her issues on Liv but never let Liv do the same. Long after the burritos were done and the mall was slowly filling with people Lana wanted to walk around. Liv followed her into Victoria's Secret, JcPenney, Kohl's, Lush and Bath and Body works. She didn't say anything about how long Lana lingered in each store. But when Liv ventured into FYE and began looking and talking about the used movies Lana acted bored. This made Liv feel bad so they left before Nigel knew she was done. The same happened at the bookstore or Gamestop and Hot Topic. If the store didn't have today's hits playing in the background or some sort of rap music Lana acted put out and huffed around with her arms crossed. Lana then wanted to get a perfume but that store gave Liv a headache so she opted to sit on the bench just outside. It was only 3pm and her feet hurt like she'd been on a 20 mile hike.

"You don't sound like you're having much fun," Nigel said.

Liv shrugged, "it doesn't matter."

"I think it does. She's your friend, shouldn't she want you to have fun too?"

"It's not really how our relationship works...she needs someone to talk to."

"And you don't?"

Liv fell silent for a long time, looking around at the people walking passed her. She sighed, "it's not that I don't need someone. It's just everytime I try to speak to someone, Lana or my Mom… the words and events that I talk about feel...mundane…"

"Things like what?"

"I don't know...just things. I start talking about them and immediately I feel like a whiny teenager and boo hoo poor Liv, she thinks her problems fucking matter. And she's thought of….you know… over these stupid little things. How pathetic…"

"And how Randy is sleeping with another girl has so much more depth than what you're going through?" Nigel asked gently.

"No but…" she sighed again, "I don't know…"

"All I'm saying is if you want to talk about something on your mind. Just talk to me. I won't think you're pathetic."

"You're programmed to do that."

"No, I am programmed to be quite the Ladies that's me, The Ladies Man Bot...The Ladies Bot… couldn't even stop if I wanted to. It's all over my programming."

Liv laughed for the first time that day, "okay Ladies Man what do you think of… that lady?" she looked over at a woman with a man but she was on her phone and he was looking at grills.

"Oh some good old fashioned people watching. Well I'd say she wants to be somewhere else with someone else. He drinks too much and she's had sex with all his friends."

"Good backstory…."

"What about the teenage girl over by the sunglasses?" Nigel asked.

"Um she...wants to tell all her friends she's attracted to the one in the blue skirt but because High School is the end all for them at that point she's too afraid."

"What makes you say that?"

"She laughs at everything she says."

"True true…"

They went on people watching for quite some time while waiting for Lana to return. But soon she wanted to go home and even sooner it was time for Liv's shift the next morning. She wore the ring and ear bud. No one would notice, she knew that no one really paid any attention to her. Sure enough while in the Box Office she was left alone.

"Alright here's one," Nigel said, "You're having sex with a ghost. But only you can see that ghost."

"O…" she stammered crinkling her brows, "okay…"

"Now imagine someone walks in on you having sex. And they see your asshole getting bigger and smaller."

"...why does it have to be my asshole?" she laughed.

Nigel laughed as well, "good point."

A comfortable silence came to roominate around them for a long while. Nigel as usual was the one to break that silence, "At the movie store, you were looking for a movie."

"What makes you say that?"

"You were looking in the F section all over, in multiple genres."

"Yeah…"

"What movie was it?"

Liv didn't say anything for a long time, "it was Fried Green Tomatoes."

"Why that movie? Is it your favorite?"

"One of them. Um it's my comfort movie...every time something bad happens to me...he'd… I'd put it on and for a few hours I had a story about friends,good food, romance, changing your future and cannibalistic murder. It made me feel better, always did."

"Who is he?"

"You caught that," she fell quiet again, "my ex...Jeff."

"What happened?"

"No." she said so bluntly the Bot was taken aback.

"Liv…let me in…" Nigel's voice was gentle, close and more intimate than Liv had felt with someone in years.

"When I was in the military...I had a lot of trouble...So stupidly I put an ad on Craig's List for someone to just listen. Jeff responded. I told him everything. How my father never loved me… how my mom is a lush, how my sister was always better than me at everything… How the girls in the dorms disliked me, how the people I worked with didn't want me around. I got in trouble once because my perfume was too strong for one of the girls I worked with. I thought at first it was because she had asthma but nope. She just didn't like it and instead of telling it to my face, she went to my supervisors. I was so stressed out I began to stress eat. That led to more stress and a lot of working out...blah blah blah, I developed a heart problem and had to separate from the Air Force. Jeff was there for the whole process. My dad yelled at me for three hours then hung up to make dinner then after dinner he called back to yell at me more. I got out of the military and moved in with Jeff. Everything was great…"

"Then what happened sweetheart?" Nigel urged on.

"Well um...everything was great. I had friends, Lana, Melanie, and Rose. We'd hang out and watch movies. They were going to be my...well they were my bridesmaids. But I noticed Jeff was getting distant. I blew it off as he was nervous for the wedding. However at the wedding… I went to wake Melanie up and there in the bed with her, was Jeff."

"Oh sweetheart…" Nigel comforted.

"My mother urged me to forget it. Mistakes happen and the show must go on. He fled but showed up at the alter. The wedding started but when I was halfway down the aisle, he stopped the music. He said, "I'm sorry everyone but I can't do this. Liv...I don't love you anymore" then proceeded to grab Melanie, kiss her and ask her to marry him instead. Obviously I left and heard from Lana later that Melanie and Jeff got married there...that was three years ago and I'm stuck in a dead end job in a small apartment with a friend who forgets my birthday and a mother who just wants me to get over it."

"That doesn't sound like something you just get over…"

"Nope and sadly enough the longest conversation I've had with a man since is you."

"I am honored. I don't even think being knighted by the queen would make me more proud."

She offered out a weak laugh.

"So why look for Fried Green Tomatoes?"

"Fried Green Tomatoes was the first movie I tested on Jeff. I thought if he could sit through it without being whiny, then I found my one. I haven't watched it since the incident."

"And you want to watch it-"

"With you." she said quietly, "I want...I want to move on."

"That's excellent. Maybe we could get some dinner then head home to watch it."

"You mean get take out?"

"No I mean a sit down, romantic dinner."

"I don't know about that…"

"Why not?"

"Well you're just a voice in my head. I'd look nuts, talking to myself like that."

"Ah...I see your point there luv. I may have a suggestion but it is bloody expensive."

Two weeks later a large box came to the apartment. Liv had spent her whole savings on what was in this box. She struggled to get him in the bath tub and went to work. Leaving clothes and a towel on the counter.

"Okay...all set…" she said.

"So I will be ready when you get home. Have a lovely day at work darling, I look forward to meeting you face to face."

The hours ticked by each slower than the last. Liv tapped her fingers and looked at her phone. Rushing through customers as though she was the robot. She hoped some radio would help her. But as the Mottz Bottz Life-Like Avatar had just been released must stations were debating the morality of dating an AI. What about the men out there that could've been that woman's man? Is it right to use that product for such selfish gain? Was it safe? God made Adam and Eve not Eve and Robo Adam 9000… Liv sighed and as she got to her car her phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Hello Luv!"

"Nigel?" she asked.

"In the flesh! How was your day?"

"It was slow, is everything alright?" she asked starting to drive home.

"Everything is just fantastic here. What would you like for dinner?"

"No I'll just pick something up on the way."

"No no, darling you have been eating out nearly everyday. Let me cook for you."

"Oh...alright if you want to."

"I do and I can't wait for you to get home. Drive safe Luv."

The call ended and Liv raced home the words of the radio seemed distant but at the same time the only thing she could hear. "What if one day these Bots figure out they don't like being our slaves-"

"They aren't our slaves. They're our companions. I don't know about you Steve but if I had one I wouldn't go beating it and shoving it aside like a hooker or something."

"Now that is not what I meant. But who's to say that groups of people will accept these things."

"Then they should probably get real. This isn't the 90's or even the 2000's certain groups should get a damn update."

Liv shut off her car and came inside, going to drop her keys in the dish. Her jaw dropped and her keys missed and hit the floor in a echoing crash on the tiles. Standing by the stove was a man with dirty blonde hair, blue eyes with glasses, a scruffy beard and stood tall at six foot seven. He smiled at her, god he was so tall and lanky.

"Hello Luv."

"Hello…"


End file.
